Living Tsunami
by Xazz
Summary: "You'll kill him." "Good! His ilk took everything from me! EVERYTHING!" he roared. "And if you don't get out of my way I'll hurt you too!" "No, Ondin, don't do this," Crow pleaded. "This isn't you-
1. Hurt

I feel like such a huge nerd posting this... like... yeah, pokemon.

Wrote this for a contest over on dA, I placed in the top three. This was also written... months ago, months and months ago so it isn't up to my current skill or style but I still like it because of the characterization I managed to pull out of the characters.

Italics are human speech.

* * *

><p>Ondin stumbled, his small claws dug into the grass and he pushed himself up, he couldn't stop. Behind he could hear the trainers, and the bayleef, coming after him. With a growl he surged forward and over to the road. An oncoming car blared its horn at him as he raced acroos. Light from the headlights blinded him and unthinking unleashed a shot of mud from his mouth. It hit the car making it skid sideways into the far ditch, cars screamed to a halt, horns blaring. On the other side of the road Ondin could make out the outline of the bayleef as he stood by in the light of the mayhem he'd caused. The trainers came running up behind the pokemon amazed by what had just happened.<p>

Then the humans started yelling, the one Ondin had hit was yelling that a quagsire had hit him. Half blind and hurting Ondin stumbled away from the road as they continued to yell. He heard the bayleef call after him, berating him by yelling he was weak and pathetic; he didn't care. He hurt all over and needed to rest.

Slowly he made his way away from the main road to another smaller one his feet deep in the grass. By the bright moon overhead he knew he should be asleep, and after the thrashing that bayleef had given him he was so weak he was only moving by force of will. As he walked he smelled water; beautiful clean water. Exactly what he needed, he hoped it was a pond or a river, somewhere with cool deep mud.

A fence stood between him and the water, he frowned and stood up on two legs. Then he pried open the wooden fence just enough for him to slip in, and he smelt his way to the water's edge before sliding into its cool embracefifteen. The water tingled the new wounds on his body from the previous attacks but the water refreshed him in ways that no potion ever could. He swam to the bottom of the little pond and found it hard and unyielding; no mud here, but Ondin couldn't find it in him to care. He wanted to sleep and rest. So on the bottom of the hard bottomed pond he finally fell asleep under the bright moon and the sparkling stars.

—

"Kelly, time to get up," her mother gently woke her and Kelly opened her eyes. It was summer, and she still had to get up early! This vacation blew. She sat up blearily rubbing her eyes and shooed her mother out of the room. She was fifteensixteen dangit, she didn't need her mom telling her what to do, or waking her up every morning! She hobbled out of bed and got dressed, yawning all the while.

Her mother had breakfast waiting for her at the table when she came out and she scarfed it down, pointedly ignoring the houndour at her feet who was doing his best to look adorable, hoping she'd "accidentally" drop a piece of her sausage on the floor. "None for you Caesar," Kelly said through a mouth full of toast and the houndour whimpered before walking away, put off, tp go find something else to occupy his attention.

"You ready for your first day of classes, sweetie?" Kelly's mom asked making her remember why she was getting up so early during her break. Today Kelly was going in for classes to get her trainer's license. In the last few years the requirements for becoming a trainer had become a lot tighter and the age requirement had risen too. Now you had to be sixteen (Kelly was turning sixteen in six days!) and had to pass the trainer test. Pass the test and you got your license so you could train at gyms, participate in the league, and buy poke-items at the marts. Oh, and best of all you could stop by one of the breeders and get your first pokemon with a voucher from the league! It was all very exciting and now Kelly remembered why her mother still woke her up in the morning or she would have slept in!

"Yep!" Kelly cried delightfully. At the same time Caesar started barking outside. "Oh, what is he doing now?" Kelly said crossly. Caesar only barked when someone entered the yard, her dad had trained him really well.

"Go check on him Kelly," her mom said, "I'll clean this up."

"But mooom, I have to get ready for class," she whined.

"Go check on Caesar, you have plenty of time," and she shooed her away.

Kelly sighed and got off her chair. "Caesar, what are you barking at?" she demanded sliding open the glass door, Caesar was standing by the pool barking and growling at something or another. "Caesar, stop it," she groaned. The houndour looked at her like she was being and idiot, then back down at the pool and continued to bark. Kelly sighed and went over to the poor, "What are you barking at you stupid houndour?" she demanded looking into the pool. "MOM!" she screamed. Something big and blue had taken up residence at the bottom of their pool.

"What is it Kelly?" her mom asked, suddenly appearing at the sliding door looking alarmed.

"Pokemon in the pool," and she pointed at the pool. Her mother came over quickly. "What is it?"

"Its a quagsire, I think," her mom said slowly, it was just laying on he bottom of the pool, it looked wounded. "Oh dear, Kelly, go get your father, he's in the garage.

Kelly nodded and ran to get him, "Dad, dad," she said urgently.

"Hey there Kelly Belly, what's the matter?" he asked a relaxed grin on his face at seeing his daughter.

"A quagsire got into our pool. Mom says it looks hurt," she said urgently and started pulling her dad toward the backyard.

"A quagsire? Out here in the suburbs?"

"That's what mom said, now c'mon."

"Okay okay, I'm coming," and he followed Kelly out to the backyard. "Well it is a quagsire. A pretty big one too," he said looking into the pool.

"What should we do?" asked her mom.

"I'll have Leonidas get him out, we can take him to a Center; he looks to big to be a wild one. I bet someone's looking for him," Kelly's dad said and went into the house, Kelly stayed by the pool looking worried, her mom went back inside too, now satisfied that everything was going to be okay. Her dad came back out with a great ball in hand.

"Hey dad, why don't you just catch it?" Kelly asked.

"Because it might belong to someone," he said. "C'mon out Leonidas," and he let out a poliwhirl.

"Poli?" Leonidas asked his trainer gently bouncing on his feet on the brown spanish tile.

"A quagsire got into the pool Leonidas."

"Whiiir!" Leonidas didn't like the sound of that and glared into the pool where the quagsire still hadn't moved from.

"Hey, easy does it Leonidas, I just want you to bring him up here so I can get a look at him."

"Poli," and Leonidas nodded and jumped into the pool.

—

Ondin sensed the disturbance in the surface water and slowly opened his eyes. It was light out but he didn't feel any better. About five feet above him a poliwhirl dropped down and with a quick kick of his legs landed in front of Ondin. "What are you doing in master's pool?" demanded the poliwhirl.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it belonged to a human," Ondin rasped.

"You shouldn't be here," the poliwhirl wasn't pleased by Ondin's answer.

"I didn't know where else to go. I'm hurt, I'd gladly leave, but I can hardly move," he groaned and tried to lift his head off the pool bottom; he couldn't.

There was a definite change in the poliwhirl's tone at that exhibition, "My master told me to bring you up to him," he rattled. "Since you can't swim I'll carry you," and gingerly the poliwhirl picked him up from the bottom of the pool. Then with a strong kick he rose six feet through the water and breached the surface.

_"Good boy Leonidas,"_ a man said and Ondin looked up at him blearily as Leonidas swam a few feet to the pool's edge and heaved Ondin up onto the side. The man helped him and they rolled Ondin onto the earthen sun-warmed tiles.

_"Will she be all right dad?"_ asked a young girl and Ondin's eyes flicked to her, she was hardly above child as far as humans were concerned and for some reason seeing her young face filled Ondin with a deep sense of loss. He whimpered and looked away from her.

_"I think he will Kelly, go get my bag for me will you?"_ the man was very gentle and Ondin felt safe with him.

"My master is a good man," Leonidas said bobbing his body at Ondin.

"I bet," Ondin breathed. Off to the side someone growled at him.

"Trespasser," they snarled.

"Leave him alone Caesar, he is hurt, master is helping him," Leonidas berated whoever Caesar was, they were out of Ondin's line of sight.

_"Here you go dad,"_ the girl had returned but Ondin refused to look at her, the sense of loss and loneliness she gave him hurt him so bad it was like he was being whipped by that bayleef's vines again.

_"Thank you Kelly Belly. Now you should get going, don't you have class today?"_

_"Oh! Yes, mom is taking me. Will she be okay?"_

Again with the she thing, Ondin made an effort and slapped his tail angrily on the tile, the end splashed into the pool. The man laughed, _"I think your she is a he Kelly."_

_"Oh… I'm sorry Mr. Quagsire,"_ she said.

_"Kelly! Hurry up or you'll be late!"_ another female voice called from far away.

_"He'll be okay right dad?"_

_"Yes, now go on, I got him."_

_"Okay,"_ and Ondin heard her run away.

"Who was that?" Ondin asked Leonidas who pulled Ondin onto his side so the man could look at his underbelly.

"That was the master's daughter, her name is Kelly. She's going to participate in getting her trainer's license today."

"And the other lady?"

"Master's mate, Shelly."

_"Yeeesh, you got quite a scar here buddy,"_ said the man rouching Ondin's old wound on his side.

"It is old," Ondin whispered closing his eyes as the man uncapped some potion. "What is your master's name?"

"Jeffery-

"You shouldn't tell strangers everything Leonidas," Caesar suddenly growled.

"I mean them no harm," Ondin said and Jeffery helped him open his mouth and pour some of the potion in.

_"You'll be okay now," _Jeffrey smiled at him. _"That potion will help you sleep, I'm calling the Center so they can come get you,"_ and he rubbed Ondin's muzzle.

"You have a nice master," Ondin told Leonidas as the poliwhirl let Ondin back onto his stomach. "He is very kind," he felt himself getting tired. Leonidas wasn't there anymore though; he was taken away in a flash of red light. Distantly he could hear Jeffery talking but couldn't make out what was being said. Slowly darkness bubbled across his sight and he fell asleep.

—

Ondin sat on a hill, a chikorita next to him, he was a wooper again. That was funny, he didn't even remember being a wooper; or evolving. All he remembered was waking up on the beach of the ocean and that was it. The chikorita smiled at him and spoke but he couldn't understand her; for it was indeed a her. His heart felt like someone had carved it out of his chest with a claw.

He wanted to wake up; because he knew it was a dream, he knew it was; he knew, he knew, he knew!

He looked away from the chikorita who didn't seem to have a problem with it, she just jumped up and scampered over to the other side. Then she looked up expectantly and a shadow fell over them. _"Lets go Ondin,"_ and he called the chikorita something Ondin couldn't hear properly. _"We're going on a great adventure," _Ondin looked up into the wide smiling face, though the eyes were invisible because the sun was right behind him.

"C'mon Ondin, we're going we're going!" and he chikorita danced around him. Ondin slowly rose to his feet and followed the two down the hill.

* * *

><p>This is Ondin<p>

http:/ Ericanii. deviantart. com/art/ Ondin-the-Quagsire-163175332


	2. Olivia

Ondin woke feeling great. He hadn't felt so refreshed in a long time. Slowly he pushed himself up and yawned loudly rubbing his head, small claws peeling off dry skin-

Dry skin, he looked around quickly trying to figure out where he was. He was in a white place behind a cage wall. What? He tried to stand but the prison was just a bit to small for him to get totally upright, he sank back down to all fours, his tail came up around him.

"Hello?" he called. No answer, "Hello!" he called louder.

"Oh! He's awake," said a frighteningly happy voice and a chansey came around into view. She wore a cap on her head with a red cross on it. Ondin blinked, he was in a Center, how had he gotten here again? "We were wondering when you'd wake up," she chirped delightfully cocking her head and smiling at him.

"Where's Jeffery?" he asked his voice was a rasp; he was so thirsty and his skin was all dry.

"Who?"

Ondin shook his head to clear his thoughts. "The man who brought me here."

"Oh, he's gone. We're taking care of you now," she said delightfully.

"Oh… thank you," he said shyly.

"Let me go get Nurse Joy, she can let you out into the back," the chansey bobbed then scurried off. Ondin sat on the bottom of his cage wondering how long he'd been out. He started scratching as he waited for the chansey to come back. Over and over again, his skin was so dry and flaking and scratching relieved the itch; though he knew he shouldn't scratch, but he couldn't help it.

_"Oh dear, stop that,"_ he looked up from nibbling on his tail to ease a particular itch. _"You'll scratch all your skin away,"_ she frowned at him coming over with a set of keys.

"She said-

"I know what she said," Ondin said simply.

"Oh, even better!" the chansey almost seemed to dance, Ondin didn't like it very much, she was almost too cheerful. He looked up at Nurse Joy, she seemed so amazingly familiar, but he couldn't place why, like he'd seen her many other places. Places far away that he should have no right knowing or remembering. He shook his head and sneezed, more of his flakey skin fell off in a small cloud.

_"Oh dear, lets get you into the back now,"_ and Nurse Joy showed him out of the white room. Before he left he looked around and saw more cages, they all had pokemon in them sleeping peacefully. He wasn't afraid here, he knew that this Nurse Joy human would keep him safe and care for him.

Outside was a huge yard, filled with tall grass and a few shady trees. Ondin could smell the water of a pond hidden from view by the grass. "Oh wow," Ondin breathed. It was great.

_"Chansey, why don't you show the quagsire where the pond is, I'm sure he's eager to take a dip,"_ and she smiled cheerfully at Ondin, he looked down embarrassed and rubbed his neck riffling his back frill sheepishly.

"Follow me!" said the chansey and bounced off, Ondin followed slower on all fours listening for sounds from the tall grass, he didn't like being in tall grass, it made him uneasy like he should be ready for a fight. He turned back and saw Nurse Joy had already left, vanishing back into the Center to help other pokemon. "Hey, where'd you go?" Chansey called.

"I'm here!" Ondin said quickly and popped up onto his hind legs for a moment so she could see her then dropped back down and slithered through the tall grass following the chansey.

"And here's the pond," Chansey said bubbly standing before a small pond filled with dark, cool water. Ondin came out from the tall grass and felt the cold mud slip between his toes, he sighed. "Feel good?" she asked him.

"Very," he finally smiled at her and she giggled. "Are there other pokemon out here?"

"Yes," she bobbed her head making her little cap go askew. Frantically she quickly put it back into place, blushing as if she'd just done something embarrassing. "Once Nurse Joy says you're all healed up she can let you back into the wild," she chirped.

"Thank you," but Ondin didn't know if he was.

"At dark you need to come in, if you don't one of the nurses will come get you; okay?"

"Okay," he nodded and really wanted her to go away, he wanted to dive into the pond and cover himself with mud. The sun above was just agitating his skin and driving him nuts!

"Okay, see you later then!" and she bounced off.

Once she'd vanished into the tall grass Ondin got on his belly and slid through the mud into the water. He anchored himself to the bottom and slid into the mud as he went further and further into the pond. As he moved he threw up a cloud of mud in the clear water, as the silt settled back down Ondin let a haze settle over him. The icy move chilled the mud near him and making him feel so much better. Despite having just woken up Ondin felt himself growing tired again. He closed his outer eyelid over the clear inner eyelid that protected his eyes from the mud and fell back asleep, feeling like he was sleeping on a cloud.

—

Ondin woke with a sense of deja vu. Above him something was disturbing the surface of the water, he heard pokemon talking and laughing. He just sunk deeper into the mud. But that wasn't to last. A goldeen swam above him unsettling the silt that had layered on top of him and his back fin wiggled in the water startling a psyduck nearby and sending it into a frenzy. The psyduck thrashed in the water calling for help, that a monster was in the mud!

A large golduck swam over to the psyduck trying to calm him, but he wouldn't. "Fine," she sighed at last, "Where's the monster?"

"There, there!" the psyduck insisted and Ondin could see him when he opened his outer eyelid. The golduck swam over to him and gently tugged at his back fin.

"Please stop that," Ondin said in his normal slow, heavy voice, he swallowed some of the sweet cold mud as he spoke. The golduck jetted back startled and Ondin pushed himself out of the mud shaking loose the sediment.

"Its just a quagsire Pen, relax," said the golduck rolling her eyes.

"Monster!" Pen wailed.

"I'm sorry about my brother; he's a bit of an idiot. Lets go Pen," and she pulled him away.

"No worries," Ondin said softly and made his way to the surface passing several other water pokemon including a poliwhirl wearing (of all things) glasses. The pond was filled with pokemon now. Where had they all come from? There hadn't been all these pokemon out here when he'd first gone into the pond…

"Make way!" a buizel surged past him his twin tails spinning like a propellor. He was chased by a mudkip, unlike the buizel though the mudkip didn't seem to see Ondin and crashed right into him. "Hahahaha!" the buizel laughed at the mudkip.

"Watch it," snapped the mudkip at Ondin.

"I'm sorry," Ondin said lowly bowing his head. The mudkip 'humphed' and sped away from him after the buizel.

Ondin quickly swam to the shore and climbed up onto the muddy bank. Several pokemon were watching him and he looked down timidly. "Hey mister," a little wooper waddled up to him.

"Hello," Ondin said sitting on the mud.

"Where'd you get that scar?" he asked sitting next to Ondin.

"I don't remember," Ondin said, someone snorted.

"Of course he doesn't, stupid quagsire," they mocked him softly thinking he couldn't hear.

Ondin swallowed his irritation. "Oh, does it hurt?" the little wooper asked still so curious.

"No," he shook his head. And he heard whoever it was say something again, someone else snickered and Ondin forced down annoyance. He hated prejudices against his species, just because some quagsire were a bit slow it made them all stupid. "What's your name?" he asked the wooper.

"Wooper," he swung his head back and forth. "What's yours?"

"Ondin," and again with the snickering!

"Wow! Really, that's so cool!" Wooper said and jumped up. "I wish I had a super cool name like yours. My trainer didn't though; he just called me Wooper. How boooorning is that. BOR-RING!" he declared. The same pokemon laughed. "What're they laughing at?" Wooper asked Ondin looking over at the pokemon in question.

Odin turned slowly, a vulpix at on one of the bigger rocks around the pond, a delicate skitty sat next to him giving a little purr laugh as the vulpix chuckled and controlled himself. They both had scarves, the vulpix a blue and gold striped one, the skitty a simple blue one. "Indeed, what are you laughing at?" Ondin asked.

"Nothing," snickered the skitty in a very… masculine voice.

"Just the common folk," and the vulpix snorted again.

Ondin frowned, "Ignore then Wooper," he said and got up to leave.

"HEY!" he stopped when he heard the two yelling out indignities. "You stupid… gah! Look what you've done to my fur!" the vulpix howled to someone on the other side of the rock.

"That'll teach you for making fun of others," laughed a voice, though unlike them it wasn't mocking, more brave then anything.

"Uhg, water, disgusting," the vulpix tried to shake out his six long tails making them fluff up and causing him to look very undignified. "You'll pay for that," he hissed and leapt off the boulder into the tall grass.

"Hey, wait up Roland," yelled the skitty, he was soaking wet as well and jumped off the rock after the vulpix.

"Stupid fur faces. I hope they didn't hurt your feelings," they said and stepped out from behind he roc, Ondin stared. It was a shiny quagsire.

"Olivia, you're back!" Wooper cried and jumped into the air in delight and ran over to her. She gave him a pat on the head. "Everyone said you weren't coming back," he wailed and looked about to cry. Ondin couldn't take her eyes off her. She was a pale pink color like the color of a shiny wooper, and shimmered in the later afternoon light.

"Of course I came back," she beamed at Wooper. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Ondin, he has a super cool name like you do Olivia," Wooper jumped up and down excitedly.

"Did you get those two all wet?" Ondin asked her shyly.

"Yep," she said boldly puffing out her chest. "They shouldn't go around making fun of others just because of what species we are," she folded her arms.

"I agree," Ondin nodded feeling out of place.

"Why did you leave Olivia?" Wooper asked her.

"My trainer took me back, but I was picking fights again," she rolled her eyes, "So I had to come back to that Nurse Joy could fix me up," her tail swished through the mud. "What's your story?" she asked walking right up to Ondin, he realized he'd been staring and quickly looked away.

"I was attacked by a bayleef and got hurt," Ondin said feeling pathetic. "Somehow I ended up in a human pool, he brought me here," he hid the scar on his side serupticiously with his arm.

"Oh," she suddenly looked at him with greater interest, "So you're a wild quagsire?"

"Yes, you could say that."

She just smiled at him and Ondin felt butterflies in his tummy, "You'll have to tell me about all your adventures out there," she insisted still smiling.

—

"Everyone, everyone!" Ondin heard Chansey calling through the tall grass. "Its time to come in now, time to come in!" and several chancy waddled over to the pond.

"Aww, I hate this time of day," Olivia sighed. "Time to go back into my pokeball. You don't have to do you Ondin?" she asked him.

"N-no," he said. "At least, I don't think I do, it isn't like I have one," he finished lamely.

"Lucky, I wish I didn't have to go into a pokeball. I could get let out of the Center like you will and go live wild," she sighed.

"Being on your own isn't all its cracked up to be," he tried.

She just giggled, "All the wild ones say that. Say it must be nice to have a trainer to take care of you. But it isn't, I just have to stand around and look pretty and go to contests. That is so-

"BOR-RING!" Wooper chimed in bouncing next to her.

"Exactly Wooper," and she patted him on the head, beaming at him. Ondin sighed watching her.

"Come on everyone, time to go in!" Chansey yelled again and Ondin got to his feet and walked with Wooper and Olivia back to Nurse Joy. There were several other nurses there, not only one Nurse Joy, they were all returning pokemon to their pokeball.

"See you tomorrow Ondin," Olivia said giving him a smile before a nurse recalled her back to her pokeball.

"Bye," he called but it was to late, she was already gone in a flash of red light.

"I had super duper fun with you today Ondin, lets have a super duper fun day tomorrow too!" Wooper said jumping up and down, Ondin smiled slightly, he was just a giant ball of energy.

"I had fun too," Ondin nodded slowly but his mind was wandering away from Wooper.

"YAA! Pokeball!" Wooper cried jumping into the red light. Ondin and a few other wild pokemon were all that remained outside of pokeballs. They were fierce looking pokemon with mean faces and covered in scars. None of them looked particularly friendly, and the two growlith who were there were eyeing a stantler, who's leg was in a cast, like he was their next meal. The stantler in turn looked worried.

_"Alright all of you, time to go in,"_ said Nurse Joy and Chansey translated and they ushered the wild pokemon into the Center. Nurse Joy gave him a bowl of grubs which set his mouth watering and he devoured them with extreme prejudice and before he went into his cage she dumped a bucket of water over his head. He fell asleep under a damp towel feeling great.

—

"Today you get to leave Mr. Quagsire," Chansey told him as Nurse Joy opened his cage and he slipped out onto the cold tile floor.

"Leave?" he asked.

"Yep," she bobbled and watching her jiggle made Ondin feel nauseous. "Nurse Joy says your wounds are all healed up and you're fit to go back into the wild!"

"Wild," he said softly looking out at the large yard forlornly. He could hear pokemon in the grass and beyond them could smell the clean pond water and hear pokemon playing in it. He didn't want to leave, he liked it here. Here there was always a safe place to sleep, plenty of food and… Olivia. He didn't want to leave if she would have to stay.

"Well see you tonight!" Chansey beamed at him. "One of the nurses will let you out after supper," and then she bounced away her mass jiggling and wiggling and Ondin looked away.

Slowly he walked through the tall grass feeling depressed. When he got to the pond he sat on the sandy bank. "HEY ONDIN!" Wooper cried seeing him and rushing over scattering sand and making other pokemon cry out angrily at him. "Sorry, sorry!" he yelled back over his shoulder before skidding in front of Ondin. "Hey, isn't today great? It sure is a great day!"

"I suppose," Ondin intoned slowly. Wooper frowned.

"When is your trainer coming to get you?" Ondin asked him.

"Oh, tomorrow. She went away to see her mommy, so she left me here. Since… I'm not very good in battles, and its a looong way to where she comes from. But she's coming back tomorrow. Chansey told me, and it is SO EXCITING! Can you tell I'm excited? Cause I am really really excited," and he bounced all around Ondin cheerfully.

"Heh, yeah, I can tell," Ondin said. "You really love your trainer don't you?"

"Yep yep yep! They're my favorite thing in the WHOLE WORLD!" he said cheerfully.

"Wooper, stop being so loud," Olivia sat next to Ondin. "Morning," she said glumly to Ondin.

"Wh-what's the matter Olivia?" Ondin choked out, as always stunned by her shimmering color whenever he first saw her each day.

"My trainer is coming today. I get three days off and that's it!" she pouted. "Back to the Contest circuit for me."

"Three days," Ondin said, he'd only been here two, and already Olivia would have to leave. He felt something in his chest rip.

"When do you get to go Ondin?" she asked him.

"Tonight," he said hanging his head.

"Oh, well that's awesome. At least the humans are smart enough to not let you go during the middle of the day, you'd dry up!"

"Yeah," he gazed at her sadly.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

"I don't want to leave. The wild is a frightening place. Its full of pokemon who want to eat you, or you have to eat them,and trainers, they are the worst. You're extra lucky to already have a trainer Olivia. With your color you'd have been snatched up in no time."

"Really? Is my color weird?" she asked looking at her pale pink flesh.

"No."

"Then why do you say that?" she demanded.

He stared at her, "Have you ever seen another quagsire?" he asked her overlooking the obvious of himself.

"Only boys, my trainer tried to get me to mate with a few, they were all stupid though," and she folded her arms smugly. Ondin fought down the sudden desire to know who those quagsire were and shoot an ice beam right in their faces. It was such a violent thought that it startled him.

"Bu-but no girl quagsire?" he forced himself to keep his voice even. She shook her head and once again he stared at her, but now for a totally different reason. "So why did you think you were pink?"

"I thought girls were pink, boys were blue. My trainer is always going on about that sort of stuff," Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Quagsire and wooper are all blue, like me and Wooper," Ondin said. "Even the girls. You're special Olivia."

"She is?" Wooper asked.

"I am?" she stared at him.

"Yes, I think the humans call it… shiny, or something. Its a very rare coloring, you're extra special Olivia, cause you're pink. Almost all other wooper and quagsire are blue."

"I… I had no idea," and she suddenly looked at her hands with new eyes. "So if I ever met another girl quagsire she'd be blue like you?" Ondin nodded. "That… is so weird," she eyed him.

"So its good you already have a trainer," he said again, "Or… you wouldn't have had a very easy life in the wild. Everyone would have tried to catch you."

She frowned, "I never thought of that," she said slowly.

"You have no concept of the wild Olivia," he said softly.

She stared at him, "You're right," and she frowned.

"Awww, don't be sad Olivia," Wooper insisted rubbing his head against her shoulder. She patted him on the head.

"I'll be fine I just-" she cut herself off and looked into the blue sky. Ondin heard it too, a whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop sound like thunder. "What is that?" she asked and a black machine suddenly soared over the park. Pokemon either scattered or looked up, asking each other what it was. Ondin had no idea. The machine landed, and humans got out, they were dressed in black a red letter was plastered on their shirts, Ondin knew it was an R. He didn't know why or how he knew; he just knew.

The black clothed men moved forward, others came with a bucket of pokeballs. "Get behind me," Ondin said softly getting to his feet. Dread surged up his throat and he knew that he'd be needing to protect himself and those around him very quickly.

The men unleashed a series of pokeballs, they contained magnemite and koffings. The magnemite formed a perimeter around the yard the koffing unleashed a thick smog from their mouths.

"Ondin what's go-

"Get behind me!" he cried shoving Olivia behind him as the smog reached them. He held up his arms and a bubble formed around them; protecting them. Then he started to hear the other pokemon crying out, yelling for the others to run. The poliwhirl with glasses ran right into his protection, bounced off, his glasses went flying and he blundered on without them.

He could see them through the smog now, they were moving towards him. "Ondin?" Olivia tried again peering over his shoulder.

"Shh," he said.

_"We got a powerful one,"_ a man said in the smog_, "Its using protect."_

_"Didn't the nurse say there was a shiny in here?" _another asked.

He didn't wait after that, he flared his arms out keeping the protection up and unleashed a huge earthquake. The men yelled as they fell to the ground. "We need to hide," he said, "Get into the pond."

"Ondin what's going on?" Olivia squeaked, she was holding Wooper tightly.

He looked at her; afraid, he was so afraid. "Just… get into the pond, you'll be safe there," he said. She stared at him. "Olivia please."

"Okay," and she rubbed her head against his and he dropped the protection in surprise. She slipped away from him; still holding Wooper and he heard the soft splash as she entered the pond not three feet away. Another pip as they sank into the dark blue water.

_"What the hell was that!"_ a man demanded._ "Clear away this damn smog,"_ and another pokemon was released, it kicked up a whirlwind and the smog was shot away, the koffings drifted lazily overhead. Ondin was the last pokemon by the pond, in the tall grass he could hear others, and even more were getting caught as he stood there. He swallowed down his fear and stood his ground. _"Its a quagsire,"_ said the same one.

Ondin lashed his tongue at them angrily, and got down on all fours. He Pressed his face into the sand, then deeper till he reached mud. He gobbled down the mud before lifting his head again and fired a huge mud bomb at the black clothed men. They cried and scattered. Ondin unleashed another and another till he was out of ammo. But the koffing were closing in now, he couldn't reload. He didn't have to though. Earthquake was useless against koffing, but he had one more attack to take care of these stupid heads.

_"Everyone alright?"_ called one of the black men as Ondin stood back up. _"You think it's done?"_

_"Not by a long shot!"_ another cried as Ondin opened his mouth, a huge brilliant ice beam shot out and he hit each koffing. A ball of ice formed around them and they crashed to the ground. He turned to the men in black.

_"Someone catch that thing!"_ yelled one and Ondin did his best to roar at them. He sunk his head deep into the sand sucking in mud and unleashed more bombs at them. Any attack that they managed to throw at him with their other pokemon made him bring up his protection, and the electric surges from the magnemite just slipped off his oily skin.

With each assault though Ondin knew he was growing weaker, but he didn't have the time to use his most powerful move; brine, because of the resources needed to use it, he'd have to go into the pond… and that would put Olivia and Wooper in danger! He couldn't use blizzard either because it took time to change weather from sunny and bright as it was, to a sudden storm. And he could only use his ice beam so much more before the power was done.

_"Someone catch it. Catch it! Ace will be pleased if we catch a really strong pokemon!"_

Ondin heard someone creeping up behind him in the tall grass, a cacturne stood before him his wide and mocking. "Why hello there," he sneered, all the bravery left Ondin and he was afraid again. "You're giving my masters a hard time."

"Tell them to go away," Ondin pleaded.

"They wouldn't listen to me, they won't listen to you. The nurses in this Center work for Rocket. And Rocket is going to take you all. Just come quietly."

"Never," Ondin hissed. He reared back ready to shoot an ice beam at the cacturne.

He cackled and the needles on his arm grew to huge proportions. Before Ondin could attack the cacturne slammed his arm deep into Ondin. His attack petered out before he could unleash it and Ondin screamed as the needles dug into his tender flesh, so resistant against electric attacks, but parted like butter under a grass assault. The cacturne faded from view and Ondin stumbled back delirious, already about to collapse, the cacturne was strong, even if he wasn't at the same level as Ondin that grass attack had crippled him. Blood was appearing on his shoulder and arm, he hurt so much.

Suddenly the cacturne reappeared on his other side and hit him with a mind blowing faint attack. The cacturne laughed and laughed and started beating Ondin with his prickly arms. Ondin curled into a ball whimpering under the onslaught. Finally the cacturne (still chuckling) bound him up with a grass knot. Ondin could barely move now the bindings were so tight and he lay in them bleeding and broken.

"Leave him alone!" it was Olivia. He prayed to Arceus she wouldn't be hurt. His eyes flickered and he struggled to see what was happening. She unleashed a powerful mud shot at him, then of all things a sludge bomb! The cacturne only laughed at her shrugging off the attacks and grew his needles again. He came at her and backhanded her with his needles. She fell and didn't get back up.

"NO!" Ondin screamed and tried to get out of the grass knot. No luck though. The cacturne howled in dark mirthful laughter.

"Oh yes," he sneered at Ondin. "Oh yes," and he turned to the humans signaling that they were both down for the count. Ondin closed his eyes refusing tears as a Rocket came up to him with an ultra ball (to keep him better contained) and red light swam into his vision. He croaked as the light consumed him and he was captured by Team Rocket.


	3. The Pit

Ondin's entire body hurt. He couldn't remember a time when he'd been thrashed so harshly. He could still feel welts on his skin from where the grass knot had totally dug into his oily flesh. He hadn't stopped the cacturne, he hadn't saved…

He sat up suddenly, his pain totally forgotten. "Olivia!" he cried into the bars of his cage. The only answer he got was to shut up and say quiet. "No," he whispered. "No, no, no no no no," he sunk down curling up upon himself, devistated beyond adjective. He'd wanted to protect her and Wooper. But he'd failed, he'd failed her. He let out a wretched, choked sob, his own tongue dampening the sound of his sorrow.

_"This the one that gave you trouble?"_ Ondin looked up, a man with a white pony tail and a hard masculine face stared him in the eye. Ondin hissed at him, baring his blunted teeth, the frill on his back rippled as he tried to make himself look intimidating. He didn't like this white haired man, he smelled like smoke and greed and money._ "Oh, feisty one isn't he!" _and the man laughed. _"I like him. He's even got war scars,"_ he sneered at Ondin tossing something in his hand.

"Hey, don't even think about it Ace!" a clafable at the man's feet exclaimed angrily.

_"I dunno sir. It took Adder to take him down, he might be to much to handle. Besides, the nurses said he's still wild. Such a high level pokemon that's feral for so long could be hard to break."_

_"Well, then we'll just keep Adder on hand till he learns why it's good to listen to me,"_ Ace sneered at Ondin again.

"Hey! Aren't you even listening you idiot?" the clafable was very active now.

_"Did you check his level?"_ Ace asked the Rocket grunt staring strait into Ondin's eyes, tossing something into the air and catching it, when Ondin finally looked he saw they were dice.

_"We calculated it to be around sixty, sir," _the grunt nodded.

_"Well, aren't you full of surprises, and he's stronger then you Chance,"_ Ace grinned down at the clafable.

"Your ass is mine," Chance hissed at Ondin adjusting his shades.

_"Ready for some fun big fella?" _Ace asked putting his face close to the cage. Ondin hissed and spat a huge wad of spit, snot and left over mud into Ace's face._ "ARG! You little piece of useless-_

_"Sir, I did warn you. He's feral. Even after we caught him, we needed an ultra ball before he stopped struggling."_

_"Uhg, I don't even know if you're worth my time you piece of snot," _Ace glared at Ondin wiping the spit mixture off his face. Ondin used all of his bravery to glare back and hiss, but if he admitted to himself he wasn't so brave anymore. The talk of Adder the cacturne had shaken him, even just remembering made him shutter. _"Take him to the Pit, see if he can hold his own. Ifhe beats the odds, maybe I'll take a chance with him."_

"You won't last a day in the pit," Chance cackled at Ondin. Ondin still didn't speak. "Ace sends pokemon he doesn't like there to die," and he laughed again.

"Will you shut up. You are so annoying," another pokemon who was braver then him called out. "Worse then those stupid humans!"

"I can do whatever I want. Cause my trainer is the boss, so suck it!" and he flipped the other pokemon off with both hands.

_"Lets go Chance," _Ace said still looking disgusted by Ondin's spit and doing his best to fix his hair and his suite. Ondin did his best to glare as they left. Once they were out of the room Ondin put his head down.

_"I'll be back with Adder and we'll take you to the Pit,"_ said the grunt before leaving as well. Only then did Ondin take a great gasping breath as fear rushed his system. He wasn't very brave, he could fake it when he needed to. But not for long. He quivered in his cage and finally remembered how much pain he was in. He groaned and rolled onto his back, for the welts were the worst on his stomach and sides. The metal was cool on his back and he closed his eyes but did not sleep.

He listened as the pokemon began to talk. He could hear crying children, stolen from their parents, fully grown adults bickering amongst each other and telling the little ones to shut up, because none of them wanted to hear it. Some claimed that they knew someone on the outside who would help them. But Ondin knew there wouldn't be any. Somehow, he just knew. Rocket wasn't to be taken lightly. Faintly he threw up a haze, but it was weak and wavered in the air like a thin mist. But it cooled his skin, moistened it, and made some of the aches go away.

Eventually the door opened again, the pokemon all fell silent. _"Glad you didn't go no where,"_ said the grunt. Ondin rolled onto his stomach, and there was the leering, sneering cacturne who had bruised him up so much before; Adder. _"Lets go."_

He didn't want to get attacked again, so he meekly dropped down from his cage and with a goodly amount of bullying from Adder, followed the grunt through the lines and lines of cages. He saw every species there could be, most of them young, not many elders, for they were to old to be taken, though they were strong, there always tended to be a downside to training old pokemon; blindness was the most common ailment.

They left the building, it was a massive warehouse, and turned towards the back of a glowing building. He hadn't realized it was night till he'd left the warehouse, but in the darkness the huge glowing building lit up everything around it like it was the sun, light burning from every window, and hanging in the air in lamps. Ondin squinted his eyes, shielding his sensative eyes with his second membrane. The grunt led them into a small shack and down a long concrete tunnel, till finally they arrived at… another cage. Ondin didn't want to go, but after just light pokes from Adder he clambered in all on his own and moved to the farthest corner of the cage.

_"For such a strong pokemon you sure are weak,"_ the grunt laughed,_ "Ace will be disappointed in you I bet,"_ he sneered then locked the door, he left with Adder, who leered at Ondin briefly before following. Ondin sank into his own skin feeling miserable and weak and alone. The welts were hurting again and he lay on his back as best he could and tried to sleep. For in sleep he could dream of Olivia, and everything didn't seem so horrible when she was around.

—

"Woooow," it was the chiorika again, the one from his last dream. Only she was a bayleef now, elegant and beautiful. "Look at you, all grown up now," she leaned down nuzzling him and warmed bloomed in his chest till he felt like he was about to burst. He wasn't a wooper this time, he was a quagsire now, probably freshly evolved.

_"I got something for you Ondin,"_ Ondin looked over, the man from before stood by, his body still cast in an indiscernible shadow where only his smiling teeth showed or a flash of his eyes. He held in his hand, a disk, _"I know you hate fighting, so I got you something that will always keep you safe. Its protect!" _he seemed very excited about it. _"Thanks to that last gym battle we had I got the funds to buy it, just for you,"_ the man rubbed Ondin's head, Ondin rumbled happily. He couldn't ever remember feeling this happy. _"So, in you go,"_ and Ondin vanished in a flash of red light into his pokeball.

But in his dream Ondin could see what was happening outside his pokeball as well. The man put the disk onto the pop out button attached to his ball. The disk started to spin; faster and faster, the red laser shot out, read the disk, then the disk was popped out, a huge crack in it from its use.

Then Ondin was outside of his pokeball again. _"Alright Ondin, lets try it!"_ and he immediately sicced the bayleef on him. With a cry Ondin threw up his arms, the vines bounced off the sudden bubble that had formed around him. He stared at it in awe. _"Oh yeah! That's the stuff! Good job Ondin,"_ and Ondin let his protect down. _"Now you're practically resistant to grass too!"_

"That's so cool," the bayleef pranced back and forth. "I hope our trainer buys me a special move too," she smiled at him.

_"Alright guys, enough dilly dally, lets get going,"_ and the trainer hoisted his bag. The bayleef ran around him in circles making him laugh, Ondin followed behind at a slower pace, happy knowing he was safe with his trainer and from grass pokemon with his new move.

—

Ondin looked across the ring at the beedrill, their wings pumped furiously keeping their airborne so they were nothing more then silver blurs. This was the Pit, an illegal pokemon fighting ring where pokemon fought, sometimes to the death, for money. "I don't want to fight you," Ondin said in his deep slow voice.

"You don't have a choice," she said tartly back at him readying her drills.

_"Fight!" _a human yelled.

"Prepare to taste my fury!" she yelled and flew at Ondin. Ondin ducked her poison jab, and slipped just out of range each time as she tried to hit him. "AHG! Why can't I hit you? Stay still!" and she shot needles at him.

"I don't want to get hit," he said simply and dodged out of the way. It was obvious though Ondin was larger and bulkier then the beedrill he was faster, meaning he was a much higher level. "I would suggest you stop. I don't want to hurt you."

"That's rich. Its my job to fight. Its what I want to do. I beat you and I get to go be a Rocket's pokemon. That's all I want! Now go down," and she swung at him.

"No," and he grabbed the beedrill by her drills surprising her. Then at point blank range he unleashed an ice beam, she never stood a chance. He let go of his new ice sculpture and rubbed against it to bring moisture back to his skin. The spectators were silent, then they erupted into cheering and bickering. Ondin merely scratched his his neck and yawned feeling guilty. He hadn't wanted to do that, but he couldn't just let her hurt him! A slow opened in the wall of the Pit, same as where he'd come out of, he guessed he was allowed to leave.

"I'm sorry," Ondin apologized to the beedrill before going through the hole leaving the humans outside to bicker with themselves.

—

"That was really brave Ondin," said the bayleef as they sat under a tree, he could hear cars and people, but could not see them, they must have been in a park.

"I'm not brave," Ondin said quietly, he was a wooper again. "I hate fighting."

"But you love master," she said, it wasn't a question.

"Yes, I'd fight for him. But he knows I don't like it."

"He said once you evolve he's going to get you something nice," she grinned at him.

"He did? When?"

"He talks a lot when its just him an me. Does he talk to you when you get to walk?"

"Yeah," he bobbed his head but didn't feel the need to share any… not that could even remember what was said.

"Well he said he was saving up for something good!" she suddenly bounced up and pranced around him.

"Sit down," he said.

"Don't wanna."

"Please."

"Not until you say my name," she teased him crouching down on her front legs, her butt in the air, tiny tail wagging back and forth like a growlith puppy. Ondin stared at her, he couldn't remember her name. He didn't know, or his master's name, he didn't know either of them. Ondin started to cry, just cry and cry, the bayleef nuzzled him and tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't.

"Ondin, stop that," it was a new voice now. He sniffled and opened his eyes seeing a wall of pink, the bayleef was gone.

"Olivia," he breathed, her skin glittered in the sun and for a second he couldn't breath.

"What're you crying about?" she looked down at him, he realized he was still a wooper, but didn't find any problem with this.

"I need to remember something; it's really important, but I can't! I can't!" he wailed almost crying again.

"There there," and she picked him up, hugging him. He stopped crying. "I know you'll remember, just like you-

—

_"Get up!"_ a grunt yelled. Ondin rolled onto his feet wearily, shrugging off the now dry towel. He didn't know how long he'd been in this place, fighting, but it had seemed like a long time. Since he'd arrived they'd given him a better cage, had healed his wounds, fed him, and gave him a wet towel whenever he wasn't in the Pit. He hadn't lost a match yet, not yet, the humans were pleased, at least the Rockets were._ "Show time big fella,"_ the grunt sneered at him, Ondin merely blinked at him and hopped out of his cage. Like always, Adder stood in the shadows to make sure he behaved.

Head down, Ondin walked into the Pit, still getting over sleep. On the other side of the Pit was a lucario. He seemed bewildered to be here. Another captive like him Ondin thought. Usually when he fought Rocket pokemon they were pumped and ready to fight, thinking they were unbeatable.

_"Fight!"_ someone yelled.

The lucario jumped, "What did he say?"

"He said, fight. This is a fighting pit."

"Oh… I don't want to fight."

"Me neither," Ondin agreed and he sat on the ground and yawned scratching away some of his old dead skin.

"What will they do to us if we don't fight?" the Lucario sat as well.

"I don't know," Ondin said. The roars of outrage were starting, the betters wanted a fight.

Suddenly two slots opened on the side. Out came a typhlosion, he had a cresent scar on his nose, the other was Adder. "What do you two think you're doing?" Adder hissed.

"Sitting," Ondin said.

"There will be none of that. If you two don't fight you will fight us. And then you'll loose. And that will make the higher ups very upset," Adder sneered at Ondin.

Ondin looked at the lucario and stood. "I don't want to fight," he said.

"Well I don't want to loose, to you or to them," the lucario was up now, facing him; it would be a fight. Adder and the typhlosion backed away to the edge of the Pit, watching to make sure the fight happened. "I'm sorry," he said, then charged at Ondin, the spikes on his wrists glowing; metal claw.

"So am I," Ondin said sidestepping and back slapping the lucario with his tail. The lucario windmilled his arms as Ondin got close to the ground. The Pit was covered in dirt and he quickly swallowed as much as he could before they turned back around. He was getting back up as the lucario came at him again, using his own stone edge to bounce towards Ondin and make himself a harder to lock on target, all the while his spikes glowing for another metal claw.

Then he was on Ondin, and he wasn't fast enough this time. The metal claw scraped against his hide but didn't even break the skin. He was resistant to steel. "Try again," Ondin growled and grabbed the lucario's face and slammed him into the ground. The lucario managed to get his feet underneath him quickly, but not quick enough to avoid a mud bomb to his chest. He yelped and scrambled away from Ondin nursing a giant wound on his body, the mud seeping into his body, hurting him even more. Ondin threw another mud bomb at the lucario, who managed to dodge and throw stone at him. They slammed into Ondin but he shrugged them off and shot a barrage of bombs at the lucario.

"Go down," the lucario demanded and clapped his paws together before drawing them apart, an aura sphere gathering between them. Ondin's eyes widened and he shut his mouth as the sphere was thrown at him. Quickly, almost to late, he threw up his arms in front of himself and his bubble of protect flared up. The aura sphere crashed into it throwing up a cloud of dust. Ondin knew it was perfect cover, he jumped as high as he could (which wasn't that high) and when he landed unleashed and earthquake. The lucario yelled in paid as the ground assault hit him. When the dust cleared from the aura sphere the lucario was down, Ondin still stood; looking miserable. He hated fighting, but he hated pain more.

He went over to the lucario, "I'm sorry," he said frowning sadly. But the lucario had fainted, and blood was oozing out of the wound in his chest where Ondin had hit him with the mud bomb. The betters were cheering or booing, and bickering; always with the bickering.

He walked past Adder and the typlosion with a crescent on its nose as he left the Pit. A grunt let him back into his cage and threw him a dripping wet towel. He pulled it over his body, curling up under it and tried to not let the guilt he felt during these battle overwhelm him.

—

"Reef," he woke up saying the name, but didn't know what it meant. He tried to remember the dream, but like water in his hands the harder he tried to keep it contained the easier it slipped through his fingers. "Reef," he said it again to try and see if that made him remember; it didn't. Depressed he sunk under the still damp towel.

"Hey," someone called from outside his cage. "Hey you."

"Hello?" Ondin asked sitting up slightly. He looked around and in the dimness of the cage area he could see several glowing objects coming from other cages. But then in front of him was a much brighter object. Yellow rings glowing in the night; umbreon. "How are you out of your cage?" he asked stupidly hoping it wasn't a Rocket pokemon come to tease him.

"I don't do cages," said the umbreon. "I found this place, the others say you're the strongest in this Pit thing," he said. Ondin looked around quickly, Adder wasn't nearby.

"Where's Adder?"

"Who?"

"The cacturne who watches my cage."

"Oh, he's over there," and the umberon pointed to the corner where Adder lay slumped up against the wall.

"But… how?" Ondin asked.

"Fire," was all the umberon said. Ondin didn't say anything. "Is it true you're the strongest in the Pit?" he asked.

"If I am?" Ondin asked and reached up to the cage latch and fiddled with it.

"I'm looking for help with something very important."

"Oh really?" he asked and after a bit more trouble the cage snapped open. Ondin got out.

"Why didn't you do that before?"

"Because Adder would have hurt me with grass knot," Ondin said.

"Anyways, I'm looking for strong pokemon to help me look for something," the umbreon.

"Which is?" Ondin asked and went to the cage next to him. From the outside it was a lot easier to open the cages and he let out a freaked out pokemon, they cried thanks but ran to the exit.

"You don't need to know," the umbreon said irritated.

"If you want my help you'll need to tell me for what," Ondin said, "I have to look for... for something very precious myself," he said though he didn't know if he was refering to Olivia, or who/whatever Reef was.

"I'm looking for my sister," the umbreon said finally after following Ondin along the line of cages as he opened up each one. A few started doing as he was doing; letting pokemon out, most just ran as far from the Pit cages as they could.

"Oh."

"She's a shiny; I need to find her," the umbreon hissed.

"What's your name kid?" Ondin asked.

"I am not a kid," he hissed.

Ondin looked at the umbreon, "You're barely in your prime. Now what's your name?" and he released a young syther.

The umbreon didn't reply right away, "Crow," he finally said.

"I am Ondin. I'll help you look for my sister if you help me too."

"For what you're looking for?" Crow asked.

"Yes."

"What's that?"

"Olivia," he said softly.

"Who's that?"

"A shiny quagsire. And she... if very important to me," he said.

"You got a deal," Crow said. "Help me and I help you," Ondin only nodded before letting out the last pokemon, which with a whimpered thanks slithered out of its cage and fled.


	4. Flirting With the Edge

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Ondin asked a few steps behind Crow who was endlessly impatient with him for being so slow. They'd been walking about ten minutes now and had left the warehouse like building where the Pit had been.

"To find my sister," Crow snapped. Ondin stopped in his tracks, Crow heard him and twisted around to look at him, "Why are you stopping? You said you'd help me!" he accused Ondin.

Ondin sighed and rubbed the wound on his side suddenly feeling weary. "So you have... no plan," it wasn't a question.

"The plan is to get into Rocket HQ, find my sister; then leave. Do I have to spell it out for you, you stupid quagsire?" he demanded.

Ondin walked slowly over to Crow and before the umbreon knew what hit him Ondin had pummeled him into the ground with his tail, slamming him. "Rule one when dealing with someone bigger, older and stronger then you pup; don't insult them, especially when you want their help. Rule two; don't call me stupid," he said in his deep, heavy voice, holding Crow down with his foot. Crow squirmed underfoot and tried to get away but Ondin was much stronger, had a type advantage, and was bigger and heavier; Crow wasn't going anywhere.

"Let me up," Crow snarled, Ondin smacked him around with his tail. "What the hell! Stop that, and let me up. I have to save my sister!"

"If she was so important then you'd be using your head right now and not being an idiot when she needs you," Ondin said staring at Crow harshly, Crow's eyes were hot and determined; almost angry, while Ondin's were calm and alien. "Hot blooded thinking gets nothing done. If it did I wouldn't still be here now. And if you're wild like you tell me then you know this lesson very well. Thinking with a calm mind saves you; not being rash. Now stop it," his voice ended being hard as river stone.

Crow continued to stare before he finally looked away; Ondin had unnerved Crow with his rectangular stare. "Fine," he said. "You're right." Ondin slowly took his foot off and Crow rolled to his belly; then hopped to his feet. "I don't have a plan. Do you?"

"Yes," and Ondin walked past Crow, with the same slow deliberate steps. Crow sighed but followed after him, doing his best not to get to far ahead from the quagsire.

—

Olivia whimpered in her cage feeling and looking miserable, she wished he was here; with his clever eyes, and stumbling awkward talk around her that was a dead give away he liked her, and the fire that sparked in his eyes when she talked about the males her trainer had tried to get her to be with; as if he wanted to smash them into pulp. He was kind and funny and handsome and she wished he was there to make all her pains go away. In the next cages over she heard moans and sobs from the other pokemon; but she couldn't see them, they were separated by a steel barrier. They were all in such pain, and it made her sad and wish Ondin was there even more; Wooper too, he was so silly and young and always gave her a good giggle. But they weren't, and she was among those in the cages that were wounded and in pain.

She had a new set of puncture marks on her belly and arms from where those evil male humans in the white coats had stuck her with needles; drawing out her dark red blood. Her beautiful pink skin was dry and had started to crack and peel, she wanted water or mud so badly, she was so dehydrated. Long bloody scratches riddled her skin from where she'd tried to ease the itch of her skin, but it had only made it worse, her skin was thin from lack of water and even her small nails had easily ruptured the tender membrane When the evil men did give her water she'd dump it on herself to stop the burning itch; but it didn't stop the scratchy throat, food was even more rare and it was dry and chalky and just made her throat even dry and itchier.

The first day she'd called for her trainer, wanting her to save her. But after a few days and an unknown number of tests she knew that her trainer wasn't coming; probably didn't even know where she was. She'd cried all day when she'd thought of that; that she was going to be stuck here until she died, with the dry pellet food and the dry, flaky skin, and the pain and tests. Once she'd given up on her trainer she'd turned to something she'd only heard Ondin talk about in brief. The god of pokemon; Arceus. Ondin had said he had created them all and that he heard prayers; and if you were lucky worked a miracle in your favor; from sending one of his special children to assist you, or send some other form of intervention. She'd been praying for Arceus to send someone to help her since she'd decided to start asking. Those general pleas had turned into downright begging for someone to save her.

Three days later she'd stopped praying to Arceus. Because like her trainer; she realized he couldn't and wouldn't help her. Now all she wanted was for death to come.

—

Ondin pressed his nose to the ground and inhaled, he could smell soap, wax and disinfectant, but under it he could smell humans and pokemon. Hovering above all those smells like a wavering ghost was the tangy scent he knew all to well; it was the smell of fear. The smell of dripping sweat, urine, iron bars and the sick knowledge that no one was coming to help you. It sent a chill down Ondin's spine.

"Now what are you doing?" Crow asked.

"Searching," Ondin said slowly lifting his head up, it was dark here in the underbelly of the Rocket HQ. It was night and they'd turned off most of the lights since there were no people, and since Ondin didn't have good eye sight as it was the darkness made him as blind as a human. He needed the beautiful silver moon to see at night, but there was no moon here; only a pale red glow of the emergency lighting from the ceiling and Crow's dim yellow markings; which shined like candle-light.

"It better be for my sister," Crow hissed.

Ondin turned towards Crow, lifting his face from the tile floor. "For your sister, and Olivia."

"Who's Olivia anyways?" Crow followed the quagsire when he finally started moving again; his soft paws and Ondin's floppy pads, their claws made small clicks on the carefully waxed and polished tile floor.

"She-" Ondin hesitated.

"What?"

"I don't know," he finished.

"So you're looking for someone you don't even know? Are you sure you aren't stupid?" Ondin sent him such a glare the young umbreon faltered in his steps.

"I know who she is, I just don't know what she is," he sighed.

"You said she was a shiny quagsire-

"She's more then that-

"Then what? Answer me," he demanded when Ondin didn't answer.

"Shut up Crow," Ondin said wearily. "I don't question you; show me the same respect."

"Hey, this is my rescue mission. I can ask all the questions I want," Crow hissed. "And how do I know you aren't a Rocket? Huh? You could be tricking me. Wanting to catch me for your masters along with my sister," he stopped moving and glared at Ondin.

"If I was with Rocket, why would I even be leading you on with delusions of your sister? I'd take you right to my masters to see if you were any good-

"And only a Rocket pokemon would think like that," Crow was wary of Ondin now.

"You're young, I've seen a lot more then you have," Ondin said.

"Oh yeah?" Crow sneered, "I've lived in the wild all my life, I've seen everything-

"You have not seen humans. I am released, I know my way around people, now again, please; be quiet. Unless you want to go look for your sister on your own. Though I doubt that's the case since you came out of your way to find someone strong enough to help you get your sister back," he said and without bothering to look at Crow he started walking again. Crow growled but really didn't have any choice other then to follow after Ondin.

—

"I-is anyone there?" a dry voice called out. "Hello?" and Olivia lifted her head tiredly. "Hello?"

"Keep quiet," she shushed them gently, the other pokemon were either asleep or had gone with the white robed men for their tests. "Don't bring them in here."

"I'm hurt, please help me," whined the small voice.

"We're all hurt," Olivia whispered. "No one is coming to help you; so stop asking," she curled up under her own tail.

Whoever it was whined, "But-but they can't do that! I'm special, more special then any other pokemon," she wailed.

"SHUT UP CHILD!" someone suddenly yelled and Olivia pressed back into her cage. It was the houndour that was guarding them, he had been there since before Olivia had been delivered to these horrible men. "The masters order that you be silent; and silent you will be. No disturbances," and she watched as he walked past her, his sleek black hide rippling with muscle and she whimpered. She did not want to end up on the wrong side of his teeth.

"But there is a mistake!" cried the little voice. "I shouldn't be here! I'm special I'm-

The houndour laughed, "Special indeed. You may be of different color, but here you are not special," Olivia could hear him sneering. "Every pokemon in these cages in a special color, a rare variation, don't think this makes you any better then any of them; you punk kit," he growled. The little one started to cry. "I said silence!" the houndour roared and Olivia heard him smash his face into the cage snapping his jaws; snarling. "You will be silent, or I will tell the masters you disobey them," he growled, several of the pokemon had woken, but could be heard cowering in their own cages.

The kit sniffled but did not cry anymore. "That's better," and he made his way back along the cages. He stopped in front of Olivia's cage and turned his red eye on her. "Don't think I didn't hear you too little fishy," he turned to her growling. "Ol' Selkirk hears everything here," he bared her fangs at her.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. "I won't do it again," and she tucked her head under her peeling and scared tail.

"You better be. And that goes for all of you!" he yelled at the cages at large. "No talking!" Whispers and whimpers greeted him and with a satisfied snort he finished he walk to the end of the cages and sat at attention beside the door. Olivia cried, but there were no tears; she'd run out.

—-

"What do you smell?" Crow asked.

"Pokemon, blood, and dirty water," Ondin said.

"What sort of oracle worthy crap is that?" Crow growled irritably.

"You asked me what I smelled," Ondin cocked his head at the umbreon. "It means we're close."

"Oh yeah, how do you know?" he hissed.

"Because when quagsire start to peel, they smell like contaminated water-

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR MY SISTER!" Crow all but screamed at Ondin.

"My world doesn't revolve around you Crow," Ondin said staring him down, the umbreon looked away again; the kid wasn't as brave as he made himself pretend he was. "And they're both shiny, I figured where they took your sister they took Olivia too. Now c'mon, we're close, but still have a ways to go," and he started walking again.

Ten minutes later Crow stopped him, "What?"

"I hear something," he said softly.

"Like what?"

"Oh ho ho ho ho, what do we have here," a voice hissed out from the darkness of the hall. "Two little things wandering where they shouldn't be," and a towering entity rose out of the shadows. Hood flared, a huge grinning face filled with teeth greeted them. Ondin swallowed and stepped behind Crow, who's own legs were trembling.

"Gh-get out of our way," Crow insisted.

The figured laughed but Ondin still couldn't see where it's mouth was, for the grinning monster face had not moved. "Oh no, I don't think so. You two are where you shouldn't be, so; it will be my duty to send you back to where you belong," and before either could react they struck.

Fangs sank into Ondin's flesh, and he blacked out.

—

They were surrounded by tall grass, and distantly Ondin could hear the sound of the ocean crashing against a cliff. Beside him walked a young man, he couldn't make out the face, but his posture was relaxed; even bored as they walked, his hands behind his head, face slightly tipped up to the sky. The bayleef was no where in sight. In the west Ondin could see the makings of a storm, they looked very far away though.

Suddenly, to the left, grass rustled. "Oh! Get ready Ondin!" the young man ordered. Ondin swallowed his dislike of battles and readied himself to fight. He pressed his face into the ground and like his mouth was a great shovel he swallowed several mouthfuls of the hot, dry dirt. The grass rustled again, "Mud bomb!" and as ordered Ondin unleashed a huge mud bomb. Something hissed angrily and a purple streak streamed out of the grass and headed strait for Ondin.

He didn't need his master to tell him to dodge as he jumped to the side using his tail to slap the pokemon in the head, sending it down to the ground in a puff of dust. Ondin righted himself and finally say his attacker; arbok.

_"Watch out for its fangs!"_ the man called and Ondin dodged again and again as the arbok struck at him over and over trying to land a hit with his deadly fangs. _"Ice beam Ondin!"_ and Ondin reared back and unleashed the crackling beam of energy from his maw. The arbok screamed angrily and slipped out of range, all the while trying to get closer and closer to Ondin. _"Watch out!" _he yelled and Ondin jumped back, cutting off his ice beam prematurely. The arbok got in a bite before Ondin unleashed another mud ball at point blank range. The arbok screamed and let go; flailing about on the ground for a moment before shaking off the mud. It hissed at him and Ondin trembled. Opening its maw as wide as it could Ondin saw them gleam like ice crystals then it lunged. _"PROTECT!"_

Ondin threw up his shield just in time. The arbok screamed as it slammed into the protective bubble, its jaw flopping about like a broken hinge. A shadow passed over head and Ondin looked up, the storm clouds he'd thought were far away had snuck up on him; as had the sound of the crashing waves below. Fury in his eyes the arbok suddenly rammed Ondin with its head and he flinched, giving the pokemon another opening for a devastating ice fang. It missed its first shot from its broken jaw, scratching Ondin's skin, then finally it found its mark on his side.

Ondin screamed, more from shock, and he felt his side going numb and cold. He hurled more mud bombs at the arbok who writhed in pain as he took more and more steps back away from it. The arbok lay still as it started to rain, first just a bit then the storm started and it was like the heavens had unleashed their fury upon them. Blinded, hurt and bleeding Ondin strained to see through the torrent, listening desperately for his trainer. He thought he heard them and stumbled to them, but he'd gone the wrong way and he felt his feet slip from under him and he fell. Distantly he could hear his master calling him helplessly.

—

Ondin gasped and sat up, unable to believe he'd just blacked out. In the dark Crow was doing battle with the arbok. He knew it was an arbok now, and the arbok was cackling at Crow as the umbreon tried to hit him but with no avail.

Ondin growled, "You," he hissed.

The arbok paused as he was about to champ down on Crow's leg, which lay under his great coils. "Oh, hello sunshine, glad you decided to join us," he sneered.

"Die," was all Ondin said with such dark venom and malice that later when he looked back on it he was shocked senseless. Crow himself stared at Ondin as if unable to believe such a mellow pokemon sounded suddenly like he'd gone over to the dark side. The arbok just cackled, amused and lashed out at Ondin snarling.

Ondin caught him by the maw, which was open to let forth a bubble of acid. He squirmed in Ondin's grip and Ondin slammed him down on the ground. He shot a mud bomb at the arbok, again and again till he was out of ammo. The arbok never had the chance as Ondin held him down with his foot and heavy tail so he could do nothing but squirm. Once he was out of ammo the arbok wasn't moving; barely breathing. He opened his mouth to hurl an ice beam and seal the arbok's fate when Crow ran in front of him, "Ondin stop!" he yelled.

"Out of my way kit," Ondin hissed, Crow's legs were shaking again, he'd never seen a pokemon with more rage in his eyes then Ondin.

"No, no, I won't. You'll kill him."

"Good! His ilk took everything from me! EVERYTHING!" he roared. "And if you don't get out of my way I'll hurt you too!"

"No, Ondin, don't do this," Crow pleaded. "This isn't you-

"You don't know me," Ondin snarled. "I fight when I must; and this is one of those times where I must," he glared at Crow.

"Let him go, just... let him go," Crow was still trying.

"WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING HIM!" Ondin yelled. "His master captured your sister! They're the cause of all this mess. ALL of it," he growled angrily. Ondin had never felt such rage, it was like he was breathing mountain air; icy and thin, making him light headed. "Now get out of my way," and he shoved Crow aside.

"What would Olivia think if she saw you now!" it was his last ditch effort, and Crow knew it. If this didn't stop him, nothing would.

"Olivia?" he stopped suddenly.

"If she saw you, right now, what would she think?" Crow tried to reason with him. "She wouldn't like it would she? She'd tell you to stop. Wouldn't she?" Ondin didn't answer, "Wouldn't she!" Crow demanded.

"She would," Ondin finally said softly and hung his head. "She'd be scared and want me to stop," his right hand went to the scars on his flank, he ran his small claw along all three scars.

"Come on Ondin," Crow said softly. "Lets find Olivia and my sister," he practically begged. "Don't kill him, please, lets go."

"A- okay," he said his voice returned to the deep, slow, almost mournful tone he had. "Lets go," he went over to Crow and the umbreon prodded him forward with his head, to just keep him moving. Ondin looked back once to see the long lump of the arbok in the more then partial darkness.

"Look forward," Crow ordered, Ondin did.

—

"This is it," Ondin said.

"You're sure?"

"You can't smell it?"

"Smell what?"

"Take a good deep sniff," Ondin urged.

Crow did, "Smells like wax and cold air," he said shrugging.

"I guess your nose isn't as good as mine," Ondin said. "The smell of dirty water is so strong it makes me feel unclean," he shivered.

"So, they're in there?"

"There is a very good chance," Ondin reached up and opened the door. It swung open on silent hinges. Inside it was dark, except for green lighting, small lights blinked on and off at seemingly random, and green piping ran along both the top molding and the floor molding.

"What is this place?" Crow moved into the room, deeper, passed giant looming machines, into an ethereal green glow.

"I don't know, wait for me," he called and scrambled after the umbreon. He collided with Crow, "What is it?" he asked and suddenly looked, his mouth hung open.

Huge tubes filled with slightly bubbling liquid lay before them, lit by green and amber lights, as if to distinguish something; for they were not randomly colored, but rather; clustered by colors. They held pokemon, hoses had been shoved down their throats and up their nostrils. "Arceus," Ondin breathed seeing them.

"Wh-what are they?" Crow stammered.

"I- I don't know, he walked between the tubes and finally stopped dead at one. "Olivia?" he asked looking up at the container, which held a curled up quagsire, the tube was lit by an amber light, her skin was beautiful in the light, it shimmered and rippled. They breathed and bubbled scrambled to the top of the tube, other filtered up from its base.

"What did you find?" Crow asked.

"Olivia, she's here," his voice was thick and he felt about to cry in joy.

"She doesn't look to good," Crow said.

"I-I-I-I need to get her out," and before he could think he smashed himself into the glass, nothing. He slammed into it again and again, Crow helped and slapped against it faster then Ondin could even blink. Finally a spider web appeared on the glass. With a well placed final slam the tube shattered and the liquid ran out. The quagsire went with it and landed with a slick, wet thud on the now soaked floor. "Olivia!" he ran to her. "Oh thank goodness, Olivia, are you okay?" and he went to her, she hadn't moved. "Olivia?" all she did was breath, he shook her; nothing. Frantically he pulled out the tubes in her mouth and nose, her entire body seemed to deflate in his hands and she stopped breathing.

He started to hyperventilate, "Olivia?" he croaked. "Olivia?" he tried to wake her; to make her breath. But in his arms something new began to happen, she began to break apart, as if she was made of fluid she seemed to melt, her slick skin slipping through his webbed fingers like it was sand in a cive. "NO!" he cried and tried to gather her up; but no luck there. "No... no no no no," and he sunk into himself.

"Hey Ondin, look," Crow nudged him and pointed with his nose, Ondin looked up and was stunned to see other Olivias. Three others in fact, they all looked like the first. "I don't think that was really Olivia."

"The-they're clones," Ondin breathed.

"Clones? What's a clone?"

"Its an exact copy of an original thing. They, the Rockets, they must be cloning pokemon," he looked around at the other tubes, they all held pokemon that shimmered in the amber and green lights. "They're cloning shiny pokemon," his mouth was dry.

"Why?"

"I don't know," he said perplexed and left the puddle of what had once been a clone of Olivia. "But if these are the clones, then they must keep the originals around here somewhere. Lets find them. You go that way," he pointed. Crow nodded and they parted ways.

Ondin weaved through the tubes, trying not to look at them, their floating bodies unnerved him. He saw typlosion, ghastly, dratini, ekans, charizard, and even other umbreon, only their rings glowed an incandescent blue. He stumbled through them till finally he found the edge of the room, and started to explore the walls, but no matter what he couldn't escape the glow of the clones.

"ONDIN!" Crow suddenly yelled. "I found a door!"

"Where are you?" Ondin yelled back.

"Here," and suddenly something huge smashed through a line of tubes, Ondin had to dodge to miss the psychic attack.

"Watch it!" he yelled stepping over the broken glass, he couldn't help but trample some of them, but by the time he reached Crow most were reduced to putty on the floor.

"Sorry," Crow shrugged when Ondin was upon him. "Open the door."

Ondin nodded and opened the door. He was instantly attacked by a huge snarling beast. Ondin cried out and did his best to avoid the bites, but he couldn't miss them all and several landed true. It was only once Crow unleashed a shadow ball, jettisoning the thing off Ondin that he could finally stand up. Panting and hurt Ondin gazed at their attacker. "Trespassers," the houndour growled.

"Great, another one of you," Ondin said wryly, thinking of Caesar he'd only met briefly a week prior, but had the same mentality as this one.

"Leave now before you get hurt," he growled.

"Where's my sister?" Crow hissed and Ondin could make out a row of cages. Though like the other rooms it was dark; this one was not as dark, and was lit enough to see by. "Lyra!" he yelled.

"Crow? Crow is that you!" a weak voice yelled back.

"LYRA!" and Crow unleashed another shadow ball, the houndour shot aside.

"Crow, help me," she sobbed. Ondin thought she couldn't be much older then a new kit.

"What have you done with my sister!" Crow yelled and repeatedly fainted in and out of sight attacking the houndour.

"Keep him busy Crow, I'm going to let them out," and so he did. He went to each cage and undid the locks on them, which were like his own; only these were in such a place that they were impossible to unlock from the inside.

The pokemon inside were a sorry lot. A particular shiny typlosion could hardly speak, her shoulder looked dislocated and she had several long nasty scars on her otherwise beautiful cream stomach. She cried when he opened her cage and he had to help her out, because she wouldn't come out on her own. That was the story of many of the shinies, they had been hurt so hardly most could hardly walk on their own, or had been stuck in their cages so long that their limbs hurt to move.

Finally the smell of foul water overpowered Ondin. "Olivia!" he cried and rushed to her cage. She lay curled up, her back to him, her tail over her head. "Olivia!" he cried again.

"Ondin?" she asked disbelievingly, twisting around.

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm here," and he fumbled with the lock. He had to duck as a shot of fire flared past him. "Watch it Crow!" he yelled at the dueling pokemon.

"Blame dog-breath!" Crow snarled back.

"Get away from those cages you idiot," the houndour snarled and made to lunge at Ondin, but Crow got him with a faint attack, with a snarl the dog turned back to the umbreon with extreme prejudice.

"Where's my sister?" Crow demanded.

"Getting to it," Ondin called. Then he turned back to Olivia, she was gripping the bars of her cage. "I'll get you out," he breathed and purposefully undid the lock, she practically fell out. "Got you, I got you," he said as she cried out in pain, her wounds becoming agitate. "Stay here, I'll be right back," and he left her, quickly unlocking all the other cages. The last he came to held a shiny eevee. "Lyra?" he asked her. She nodded, "I'm your brother's friend, lets's go," and he undid the lock and grabbed her up. He ran back to Olivia who along with the other shinies was doing her best to get to the door. "Got her!" Ondin cried.

"Lyra!" Crow looked totally relieved that his sister was safe. He redoubled his efforts and with a well placed psychic the houndour was down for the count.

"Follow me if you want to get out," Ondin said and the shinies looked at him with hope. Their freedom suddenly pressed down on his shoulders. Lyra squirmed out of his arms and ran to her brother who lavished her with affections. He swallowed, "Can everyone walk?" There were grunts of acknowledgment, Olivia pressed right up against his slick skin, he wrapped one arm around hr, her skin was peeling horribly.

"Lets go," Crow said coming up on Ondin's other side.

"Yeah," he nodded and led them out of the holding room into the clone room. The pokemon that had been cloned whimpered; they obviously knew this room, and it had obviously not been a pleasant experience. Ondin led, Crow made sure no one lagged behind, Lyra bobbed next to him, obviously she hadn't been there long; as she was still rather energetic.

"Everyone ready?" Ondin asked, they were at the door to the main complex.

"Where are we going?" someone asked, he didn't know who.

"Does it matter? Somewhere not here," he said.

"W-will you take us there?"

"Yes," he forced his voice to be calm. "Any more questions? Or are you ready to be free?" he asked. No one spoke. "Alright; lets go," and he opened the door.


	5. How it all Goes Wrong

"Uh, Ace, sir?" one of the grunts monitoring the video feeds called over the walki talkis.

"What? I'm busy," Ace said irritated.

"We have a situation."

Ace sighed, "What sort of situation?"

"We have a breech."

"What? Who got in! It better not be another brat or heads are going to roll," he threatened.

"Not in, sir, out."

"Please, speak in complete sentences," Ace groaned, it was so hard to find good help these days, and these guys were totally incompetent!

"We have reads from four different points in the compound and game center. Pokemon have gotten loose from their cages."

"WHAT!"

—

"Ondin, stop, we've got a straggler," Crow called from behind the group. Ondin sighed but didn't say anything. They'd had to stop so much already.

"Who is it now?" he asked, but Crow wasn't in sight. The only shiny ghost pokemon in the group drifted over to to Ondin, she was probably in the best shape of them all, and didn't force them to slow down. Olivia brushed her away from his shoulder.

"The dratini," Crow said, the pink dragon was now draped across his back like some sort of ridiculous sash. "Not a problem now."

"Good, lets go," and they'd only gone about five feet when the largest of the captives, the typhosion fell, she didn't get back up. Ondin left Olivia at the front of the rag tag group. "C'mon," he said gently, "You need to get up."

"No," she whined pitifully. "No more hurting."

"Do you want to stay here?" he asked, she shook her head. He helped her stand, she was small for her species, but was still much bigger then he was.

"Where's the exit?" asked one of two shiny umbreons in the group, they stuck close together and with the charmander and Crow provided enough light to see clearly enough by.

They all looked to Ondin as he supported the shiny typhosion, even Crow, and once again he felt the weight of their expectations and their lives on his shoulders. "Someone help her," he said letting go of the typhosion, thankfully a lopbunny came over to help her, though they were in about as hurt as the rest, her fur ruffled and pock marked. Ondin went to the front and closed his eyes trying to just let himself relax, he knew stress and anger were not the ways to survive.

"Ondin," Olivia came up to his side. "You'll get us out of here, I know you will," she said, he looked at her and she was smiling faintly at him.

"I hope so," he said softly looking down the long concrete hallway.

—

"Get me visuals, right now," Ace stormed into the monitoring room his hand working his pair of dice furiously. The grunts jumped to and brought up all the monitors that showed pokemon moving en mass around the compound. "How the hell did this happen!" he yelled.

"We don't know sir. Just an hour or so ago everything was fine."

"Where did it start?" he growled.

"The Pit," said one.

"Show me what was going on inside the containment units two hours ago," he said and the grunts quickly did as he ordered. It just showed the pokemon sleeping, they fast forwarded till a new light appeared onscreen. "Wait," and the tape played as normal. They watched as an umbreon appeared on screen and they followed it through the containment unit as it stopped to inspect some cages. "Where did that thing come from?" he asked.

"We don't know sir," they said. "It didn't appear on any screens prior to now."

They continued to watch as the umbreon finally stood in front a cage and a cacturne came out of the low lit shadows to attack it. But out of no where the umbreon smashed it with a fire attack of such a violent nature that the cacturne only held up to two attacks before it was down for the count. The umbreon inspected the cage and a blue arm appeared, and worked the simple bolt lock till the cage swung open and a quagsire slid out onto the floor. "Pause," Ace said and looked closely at the quagsire, for some reason it was familiar, then he cursed, "Play it" and they watched as the quagsire went through the entire unit releasing pokemon. Ace cursed more, glaring at the grunts who looked like they were about to loose control of their bodily functions as they realized how badly they'd messed up.

"Follow those two," he ordered and the cameras kept changing as they watched the pokemon walk down halls and battle one of the old watch dogs, an arbok with a nasty smile. The umbreon struggled with it as the quagsire had been knocked out before with sudden devastating power the ground pokemon turned the arbok into a limp rope. They lost the pair at a door which had no surveillance inside. "What's in there?" he asked.

"Uhh," the grunts quickly began looking through schematics. It took them several minutes, but by then it wasn't needed. The door was opening; and shiny pokemon walked out.

Ace gave a wordless cry of distress. "You morons!" he yelled at them and quickly put his hand over his face as he tried to think. Meanwhile the pokemon had walked away. "Okay, where else do we have a breech?" he asked.

"Sectors two, three, and seven," said one bringing up the screens.

"Wonderful," Ace sighed. "Send out an alert, I want all personnel to be on alert. They are to catch any pokemon they seen and are to bring them to containment unit three, you got all that?"

"Yes, sir," said one of the grunts.

"Also, make sure our guard dogs know that we're on alert," he said.

"Yes, sir," said the other.

"Don't screw this up again," and he hit them both on the back of the head. They ducked.

—

"Oh," Phantom looked up as the lights went on all down the hall. "Well this is new," and he floated down the hall, his spell tag fluttering in the light breeze created by his movements.

He came to a cross hall and looked down both ways then quickly ducked back as a pack of growlithe raced down the hall. "You," one stopped and spoke in a very official tone, "State your directive?" he stood rigid and erect.

"Uhhh, watch dog," he said raising a brow.

"Good, we're on the lookout for escapees," said the growlithe.

"What happened?" Phantom asked curiously, floating above the growlithe, almost floating upside down.

"Some pokemon escaped. We've been ordered to detain them if we meet them," he barked.

"Right, okay," Phantom smiled a gengar famous smile.

"If you manage to find some wait until a human comes along, they will capture and hold, is that clear?"

"You got it chief," Phantom gave a mocking little salute. The growlithe snorted and raced after his pack. "Well… this is fun… I guessssss," he said in a little sing song manner and floated up to the ceiling to see if he could find some fun.

—

"Ondin, we need to stop," Crow called.

"Again?" he was starting to feel hopeless, they had to stop every five minutes.

"Sorry," Crow shrugged.

"It's okay," he sighed and sat, the others took it as a cue to sit as well, several sighing as they relieved their legs of the weight of their body. The lights had come on a few minutes ago and while none of them knew quite what that meant Ondin had a feeling that it wasn't good. The female typhosion was especially anxious of the lights, but she hadn't said anything of importance in determining what it meant.

"AHHHHHH!"

Everyone looked up as they heard yelling coming from down the hall. Ondin perked up and Crow leapt over to his side. As the only two in any state to battle they would have to protect the group alone. The yell grew louder and a few seconds later a scizor screamed around the corner, in his claw he held a cubone with a pink pot in it's head.

"What by the name of Ar-

Ondin was cut off as a pack of growlithe rounded the corner after the scizor all of their barking and some shooting gouts of flame at his retreating end. "Help meeeee!" the scizor yelled.

"Out of the way!" Ondin yelled and the scizor dashed out of the way behind the group to let Ondin unleash a massive mud bomb. It smashed into the front lines of growlithe, making them stumble and slide forward onto their faces, which caused a huge pileup. To keep them grounded Ondin stomped his foot and created a carefully controlled earthquake which created a jagged circle around the growlithe before the floor fell out and they tumbled into it.

"What the… hell?" Crow asked and went over to the scizor, sniffing him.

"Th-thank you," the scizor gasped, his wings beating to cool his carapace.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Crow growled. "You better not be a Rocket pokemon."

"Crow," Ondin came over, "if he was he wouldn't be chased by them would he?" he asked.

"Oh… that makes sense… But still! Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Moche, this is Piccolo," he said nudging the cubone. "I'm looking for my son."

"Syther?" Ondin asked.

"Yes," Moche nodded.

"He was in the Pit with me. I already let him out. If he was a smart kid then he's already gone," Ondin said.

"Oh," that just made Moche look depressed.

"We're on our way out, come with us," Ondin said.

"What? Ondin you can't be serious!" Crow cried.

"Why not? We can't protect everyone ourselves," Ondin said. "We could use his help, and he could use ours," he nodded at Moche.

"I, really appreciate it," Moche said. Then he looked over at the other pokemon. "Where'd you find all these shinies?" he asked them.

"Long story," Ondin sighed. "And now isn't the time to tell it."

"Uh, Ondin," Crow nudged him.

"Yes?" he looked at Crow.

"More company," he nodded and Ondin looked.

"Oh bother," he grumbled. Down the hall was a gengar, worse it had a spell tag, worse yet; it was smiling.


	6. Agrodolce

"You have to be kidding," Ondin muttered.

"It's definitely a Gengar," Crow said.

"I can see that Crow," Ondin said irritated but trying to maintain is cool. "Hello," he called.

"You're the pokemon I'm supposed to contain," said the gengar and laughed in the eerie way gengars laugh, he pushed off the ground and floated over to them.

"Crow," Ondin said slowly, "Do something."

"Use your ice beam," he hissed.

"I'm out of shots, all I have left is mud bomb and earthquake, they don't affect ghosts," he swallowed.

"Useless," Crow snapped, "I told you not to slow us down," and he leapt forward unleashing a jet of fire from his mouth. The gengar ducked away giggling and faded in and out of view. Crow hurled as much fire as he could at the gengar each time his attack missed. "Damn, I can't hit him," he looked at the scizor. "You're faster; hit him," he snapped.

"What? Me?" Moche looked distraught. "No, I mean I-I-I-

"You can do it Mr. Moche," Piccolo said in his arms still.

"Nnnnnnei," he didn't looked pleased as he set the cubone down and moved to the front lines. He gave a yelp as suddenly the gengar spewed toxin at him, and he vanished like a mirage just as the toxin hit the concrete ground and began to make the floor boil.

"Can we leave him to you?" Ondin asked, "We need to get them out of here."

Moche dodged another shot of toxin and turned to him, "I guess," he stammered, "Wait for me," he pleaded, Ondin nodded but Crow growled. Ondin then had the charge of pushing all the wounded shinnies forward, getting them to move; they had to move, if they stayed they risked recapture because this gengar would hold them here until Rocket's came. Crow led the way now as Ondin pushed from the rear, as they were around to turn down the hall he looked back and saw Moche unleash an X-scissor attack at the gengar who just barely dodged. Then they were out of sight and Ondin couldn't think about them anymore; he had to worry about those in front of him.

"Ondin, where are we going? Which way?" Crow called. He had to focus; focus, focus.

He turned his nose up and sniffed filling his lungs with the smell of those around him; but all he could smell was the smell of pain and dirt. He needed to get fresh air. "Stay here," he said pushing past them all and moving beyond Crow even to get away from the smell of their pain and fear. Once he was far enough away he breathed again filling his lungs with the sweet cold air of the climate controlled facility. Then, seeping under the currents of cold stale air he tasted more then smelled the wet air of humid dawn. It beckoned him, promising dew laden grass and a warm cloud covered sky safe from the harsh light of the sun that would dry and peel his thin skin.

"This way," he called and from around the corner something exploded, they all jumped, leaping to their feet and scurrying after Ondin. He hoped Moche could hold the gengar, at least long enough so they could get away. As they came near him the smell of the outside faded away, instead his nose was filled with the smell of foul water and pain. "We're close," he told them, "I can smell it," and he started in front leading them away from the fight.

—

"Is that-

"It is!"

"Wait," Ondin held back the two shiny umbreon who wanted to run to the glass door where they could see the outside.

"What? Why? Its right there; freedom!"

"He said wait," Crow snapped and Ondin went forward cautiously and was sure there would be traps. He knew there probably were, he just prayed it was safe. He was tired and wanted this to be over. Finally he made it to the door and nosed it open; immediately an alarm went off, he cursed.

"Get out, now," he yelled and the door tried to swing shut on automatic hinges. He strained against it but it closed. The group came up upon him looking at him for what to do. "Step back," he said softly when one of the umbreons nosed him, all the while the alarm screamed. He crouched, lowering his center of gravity, touching the floor to ensure he could control what he was about to do. Letting first the feeling fill his bones he was about to expand his power into an earthquake when suddenly he stopped as someone yelled.

They all turned to look and saw Moche running towards them. "Open the door!" he yelled followed by a team of Rockets and their pokemon.

Ondin turned away from them and with a mighty slap of his tail against the concrete the ground trembled and everyone present but him fell to the floor. They weren't the only things that fell as the wall buckled and slowly at first then with greater momentum the wall chipped and sunlight splashed through small holes in the wall. The world still shaking the entire wall twenty feet in either direction crumbled outward in a wave of rubble.

"Out!" Crow yelled. The hurt pokemon didn't need to be told twice and using their last strength they bolted out of the prison and out into the shadowed daylight the sun straining to peek through the thick clouds. Crow himself grabbed his sister by the scruff of her neck as they ran to get away. Behind them the Rockets were finally regaining their footing and stumbling towards them as Moche picked himself up and raced towards the opening and the sun.

They scattered and as they left Ondin looked back once to see that his wasn't the only hole in the complex's walls. "Ondin," Olivia grabbed him when he paused as the Rockets watched them go, he turned away from them and they didn't stop until they'd reached a tree line in the distance. "Are we safe?" she asked.

"I think," he said softly, "C'mon, we need to keep moving."

"I'm so tired," she sniffled.

"I know, we need to move though, they could be sending trackers after us, we can't stop," and he pulled her along. As they moved through the woods he saw some of the shinnies they'd helped collapsed on the ground or had managed to climb a tree before they'd allowed themselves to rest. Behind him he could hear more pokemon crashing through the tree; growlithe, houndours, electrike and others that made him shiver thinking of their snapping jaws.

Finally they left the sounds of the crashing pokemon behind and Ondin finally came to a stop, Olivia collapsed and straining she curled up in the shade of the tree they'd stopped under. Ondin watched over her as she eventually fell asleep against the cool soil and the sun broke through the canopy. He didn't allow himself to relax though and before sitting out to watch he swallowed large quantities of the damp earth to ammo if he needed it and sat himself in front of her so he could watch.

Some time later he heard branches crack and without thinking unleashed a mud bomb at its direction, something yelped pathetically, though not a canine sound. "Ooow," and from the bush crawled an umbreon.

"Crow?" he asked tentatively.

"Who else you idiot," he snapped. "Someone had to make sure you hadn't gotten yourself caught again," he favored his right side, probably where Ondin had hit him.

"I'm sorry," he frowned, "Where's your sister?"

"Here," and a shimmering green espeon came out from the bush.

"Happy Lyra?" Ondin asked her, she only smiled and bobbed her head the green ribbon around her neck practically the same shade as her glimmering fur. "Good," he dropped his own head, "That's good," he rolled his shoulders tiredly.

"And Olivia?" Crow asked him.

"Sleeping," he sighed. "We're safe, that's all that matters."

"Where are you going now?" Crow asked him after a long silence.

"Somewhere where there are no humans," he sighed, "I've had my fill of them for a while."

"Same," Crow nodded.

"And you?"

"Same," was all Crow said.

Ondin smiled wanly at him, "Good luck to you then," he bobbed his head.

"Good luck," Lyra chirped.

"Good luck," Crow echoed. "We probably won't meet again."

"No," Ondin said, "We won't," his smile was still stretched. With a nod Crow pushed Lyra back into the bush before following her so that Ondin and Olivia were alone.

—

"I wish we'd found Wooper," Olivia said to Ondin as they looked once more over the city. The Rocket compound was more then a little in ruin, figures in black swarmed around it like ants directing other ants or pokemon.

"I'm sure he's fine, he's smart enough to have gotten out during all that," he said.

"I know," she frowned and he looked at her watching the city, her body was still covered in an uncountable number of small scars. The drying and peeling and scratching had marred her pink skin and now there was no getting it smooth again. "Where are we going now Ondin?"

"The wild," he said shifted his heavy tail onto hers, "Its where you wanted to go wasn't it?"

"I suppose," she seemed contemplative.

"Unless you'd rather go back to your trainer?"

"No," she said, "I definitely don't want to do that," her tail curled up around his. "She never came to rescue me; you did," she smiled at him, "I'd rather go with you."

"The wild it is than," he bobbed his head, she nodded. "Lets go," and he turned his back on the city sliding into the river that was the city's main water supply, Olivia was right behind him. With a single beat of his tail he was pushing upstream against the current and away from Celadon.

-fin-

* * *

><p>Agrodolce; Italian for "bittersweet"<p> 


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